Lately on our morning walks I’ve been noticing a lot more trash.
This morning Jesse got to a chunk of pizza crust someone had most likely thrown from their car.
This terrifies me simply because there are those assholes in the world that would poison stuff like that just for kicks. They’re probably thinking of hurting wild animals but the reality is that it’s most likely innocent dogs and cats in the neighborhood.
Fortunately I was able to recognize what he had before he gulped it down. Once it’s down his throat there’s no getting it back. I told him to drop it but that was a lost cause. Once a street dog, always a street dog. It earned him a “Bad Dog” and just for kicks I dropped his leash and kept on walking. (We were in a safe place relatively close to home.) That really got his attention and he literally ran to me dragging the leash.
He sat in front of me looking very worried, then raised his paw. I was “Mad” so I ignored him, then he tried to jump up on me, I moved not letting him touch me. I started to walk again. He got in front of me and sat again looking up at me pitifully. He knew he’d done a bad thing.
I picked up the leash, and he walked right by my side the rest of the way home. We were nearing the 15 minute window when we got home (15 Minutes is about the maximum length a dog will worry about being scolded), so instead of taking him up the front steps and into the house, he went in the backyard via the gate in the fence.
When I got inside he was on the deck ears laid back and whining.
Point made… At the end of his “Timeout” I let him back in and he’s been very attentive since.
Hell, I can’t be mad at him for long. He gives me this face, and I melt.
Back to the original point, there’s now an old stereo receiver tossed on the embankment of the wash, Someone purposely left it there, it didn’t fall off a truck from someone moving. There are plastic and paper cups and other items at most of the road crossings along the wash. Things like broken lighters, vapes, empty cigarette packs, condoms, and even the occasional needle.
In the past during winter, we’ve had people leave trash, diapers, food wrappers, food boxes, empty beer cans, that kind of thing, but we’ve rarely had the quantity of trash I’m seeing now.
This is different. It’s purposely being left in areas that a car can park, empty their detritus and drive on. I don’t think it’s from visitors to town, nor do I think it’s trash blowing out of trash cans or trucks from the weekly trash pickup.
Something has changed. I wonder if it’s something in the makeup of the town itself. Even the walking path that’s maintained by volunteers is being trashed. Jesse insists on pooping there, but I’ve always cleaned up his mess, it’s becoming more of a problem now. There are a lot of people who don’t pick up after their dogs. That in turn makes him more likely to want to poop there.
You know it’s bad when one of the volunteers stops you on your walk just to say, “Thank You,” after seeing me fussing at Jesse not to poop on a bush or plant because it makes the cleanup so much harder. This person also thanked me for not letting Jesse kick dirt over the walking path and they’d seen me putting the rock boundary back as I walked the path.
These are all “normal” things from my perspective because I use the path and don’t assume anyone is going to clean up after me.
Even if Jesse & I are walking in the wilder areas I’ll clean up after him, and carry the poop back to the house. (Unless he’s done his thing off the various trails in the bushes.) I do this because there are people who run, walk, and ruck, through those areas. Avoiding deer and bear poop is hard enough without adding dog poop to the mix.
There’s more trash and debris around the buildings in town too. It’s like the people who’ve moved in over the years have reached a critical threshold where they’re just completely uncaring about it. They seem to assume “Someone else will take care of it”. The critical threshold is that there are more of those that don’t care if the town looks like a trash heap, than there are who’ll clean it up.
There are trash cans conveniently placed throughout town, and even secured bins along the walking trail. There are even free poo bag dispensers conveniently placed equidistant between the secured bins so cleaning up along the walking trail shouldn’t be that big an inconvenience.
The poo bag dispensers have saved me more than once with Jesse. I’ve got bags on the leash but there have been times when I’ve used the last bag and Mr. Sneaky decides to go one more time, than I have bags to clean up with.
It’s just that people don’t seem to care.
It makes me wonder if maybe I should sell before the town is so trashy people don’t want to live here.
I’ve been following with great amusement the Jimmy Kimmel affair.
I think all our politicians should have those experiences because then maybe they’d be a little more careful with the balance sheets of “We the People” instead of spending money that is not theirs, like drunken sailors on shore leave.
I’ve got all my Apple devices set to automatically update.